Side collector for mobile loader



May 31, 1955 E. J. SEIFERT 2,709,312

SIDE COLLECTOR FOR MOBILE LOADER Filed July 26, 1951 INVENTOR. EdwinJoseph Seifert SIDE COLLECTOR FOR MOBILE LOADER Edwin Joseph Seifert,Chicago, Ill., assignor to Pettibone Muiliken Corporation, Chicago,111., a corporation of Delaware Application July 26, 1951, Serial No.238,691

1 Claim. c1. 37-190 A very popular type of mobile loader has comprised avehicle having a short bucket-type conveyor at its front end which digsup the material to be loaded and dumps it onto a belt-type conveyor ofconsiderably greater length, the belt-type conveyor extending over atruck or other receiver to be loaded. For reasons of economy and toconfine the material ultimately dumped to a desirably small area, bothconveyors are of only moderate width. It is desirable, nevertheless,that this vehicular loader be capable of picking up everything withinits path as a vehicle. Heretofore this has been accomplished by a largecross-blade in the nature of a scraper and by providing propeller bladeson a cross shaft, the blades being disposed to push the material towardthe centrally located bucket-type conveyor. Conveniently, the crossshaft may be the same shaft on which the bottom sprockets of thebucket-type conveyor are carried. The scraper blade is preferablyarcuately shaped to correspond to the path of the propeller blades.

According to the present invention, this loader which has heretoforebeen highly satisfactory for loose material has been made highiysatisfactory also for compacted and fairly hard material. This isaccomplished by a general increase in the digging power of the front endequipment. The main increase has been accomplished by applying arcuatepicks to the bottoms of the propeller blades. As each such bladerotates, its pointed pick chops or prys or both chops and prys thecompacted or hardened material, breaking off chunks of it so that it canbe pushed sideways by the remainder of the blades or picks. In additionthe arcuate outside edges of the picks are provided with teeth,successive teeth preferably being axially spaced from one another sothat they may chew gradually at the remaining hardened material.Furthermore, the buckets themselves are provided with increased diggingability by virtue of providing teeth on each bucket which are staggeredwith respect to the position of the teeth on the preceding bucket.

Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent fromthe following description and from the drawings.

Designation of figures Figure 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of theloader chosen for illustration of this invention.

Figure 2 is an approximate face view of one of the picks shown in Figure1.

Figures 3 and 4 are views looking at the bottom edges of the two formsof pick shown in Fig. 1.

Although the law requires a full and exact description of at least oneform of the invention, such as that which follows, it is, of course, thepurpose of a patent to cover each new inventive concept therein nomatter how it may later be disguised by variations in form or additionsof further improvements; and the appended claim is intended toaccomplish this purpose by particularly pointing out the parts,improvements, or combinations in which the inventive concepts are found.

General description In the illustrated form of the invention, the loaderis in the form of a vehicle which may include a main frame or chassis 11carried by wheels 12 or other mobility means. Preferably there are fourwheels, at least two of which are driven. The vehicle may be steered andoperated from a cab 13. A belt conveyor 14 carries the material upwardlyand dumps it in a truck or other receiver. In many instances, the truckand loader will move along together slowly While the truck is loaded.

In the use of the illustrated form of the invention, the material is dugup and dumped on belt conveyor 14 by a bucket-type of conveyor 16. Thisconveyor may include buckets 17 carried by a pair of endless chains 18which may be carried by upper sprockets 19 and lower sprockets 21. Thelower sprockets 21 are carried by a shaft 22 which is carried by aconveyor frame 23. Preferably sprockets 21 may be raised or lowered by ahydraulic cylinder 24 operating through arm 26 forming an extension ofthe conveyor frame 23. Arm 26 rocks the conveyor frame 23 about a shaft25 on which sprockets 19 are mounted.

The shaft 22 is preferably provided with a plurality of propeller blades27 which rotate with the shaft 22. It may be noted that the shaft 22 isdriven through the sprockets 21 by the chains 18 which in turn aredriven by the upper sprockets 19 through a gear box 28 and drive shaft29.

The outer portions of the blades 27 are disposed angularly so that asthey rotate they will propel loose material toward the conveyor buckets17, thus forming a cross collector. Their action in this regard isimproved by a large cross blade 31 which is preferably in the nature ofa scraper blade and which is shaped arcuately in vertical cross sectionto conform to the paths of the propeller blades 27, although beingslightly spaced from them. The cross blade 31 may be carried by aseparate pivoted frame, not shown, and its elevation may be controlledindependently or by means of the frame 23 acting through pulleys 32carried by the frame 23. For example, its lower limit or operating levelmay be independently set and it may be raised from this level by cables33 raised by pulleys 32 when frame 23 is raised for high-speed travel.

According to the present invention, each of the propeller blades 27 isprovided with a pick 34 or 36. Preferably these blades are shaped asseen best in Figs. 2, 3 and 4. Thus they may all have a pointed toeportion 37 at their front ends. In each instance the remainder or bodyportion of the pick assumes the angularity of the body portion of theblade to which it is secured. In most cases the pointed toe portions 37of the picks are angularly disposed to the bodies of the picks 36 sothat they can slice through or tear up hard material with the leastpossible resistance.

The two picks 34 which are at opposite ends of the shaft 32 preferablyhave their toe portions 37 in alignment with the body of the picks sothat they will reach out and gather in material from a maximum width, atthe same time clearing a path for the passage of the vehicle.

Each of the picks 34 and 36 preferably is provided with notches 38 whichform teeth 39. The provision of these teeth along the portions of thepicks which exert an inward thrust has been found to greatly increasetheir ability to loosen and scrape inwardly hard material occasionallyencountered. At the same time, the end portions 41 of the blades 27 mayadvantageously be unnotched with the result that they tend to scrapemore clean the residue of material which might otherwise be left byteeth 39.

Each of the buckets 19 is provided with a plurality of teeth 51. As seenin Fig. 1, however, the teeth are staggered with respect to one anotherwhen adjacent buckets are compared. Thus the uppermost bucket shown hasfour teeth 51, while the next bucket has five teeth. The teeth greatlyincrease the ability of the bucket to dig through hard material and thestaggering of the teeth further increases this ability and decreases theamount of material which may he left. The teeth 51 together with points37 and teeth 39 of the picks 34 and 36 extend substantially the fullwidth of the vehicle. Necessarily thereare some gaps, but they arenarrow.

The picks 34 and 36 are preferably manganese steel castings bolted tothe blades 27. The bolts are relieved from shearing force, however, byribs 44 which engage the forward edges of the blades 27. The side facesof each toe portion preferably converge upwardly so that most of theupper edge 46 of each toe portion is fairly sharp to facilitate cuttingthrough hard material. The picks should of course be readily replaceablewhen they become excessively worn.

The front or leading faces of teeth 39 all preferably. slope outwardlyand rearwardly so as to present a sharp leading edge to the materialthey strike.

Each pick is preferably considerably thickened at 52, a zone oppositethe leading edge of arm 27, where the greatest strain occurs. Rearwardlyof this, they may have panels 53 of reduced thickness, shown only inFig. 1.

The picks have also been found to be very satisfactory when turned aboutand operated in the reverse direction. Thus, with a machine in which thebucket conveyor illustrated is replaced by scoops which slide thematerial rearwardly along the ground and upwardly on an inclined troughdumping it on a conveyor such as conveyor 14, the bottom shaft 22 wouldrotate in the opposite direction. Here the arms 27 would beinterchanged, those shown on the left being on the right, and

vice versa. The picks 33 and 36 would be turned about to point in thedirection of rotation (rearwardly at the bottom of the cycle) and to lieon the inside of the arms 27.

Both arrangements provide a very desirable chewingup action on thematerial being loaded, greatly improving its quality as a fill or as topsoil.

From the foregoing it is seen that a loader is provided which is verysatisfactory in cleaning off a wide layer of compacted material, as onthe shoulder of a road, as well as'loading loose material into a truckmoving with the loader.

I claim:

A mobile loader including a mobile chassis, a conveyor carried by thechassis and including spaced pairs of upper and lower sprockets, chainsextending around the sprocket pairs, material movers carried by thechains, a shaft for the lower sprockets extending axially therefrom, andcross-collector means carried and rotated by the shaft and including armmeans each having at its end as a separate member a pick having a pointnear the outer orbit of the arm means pointing approximately in thedirection of rotation and a trailing portion extending at least to therear side of the arm, having tooth-forming notches and otherwiseextending approximately to the same distance from the axis as saidpoint, but sloping axially whereby the notches provide successivestaggered teeth- 3 References Cited in the file of this patent UNITEDSTATES PATENTS 1,766,689 Besteland, Mar. 26, 1929 1,810,069 BosworthJune 16, 1931 1,812,292 Haiss s June 30, 1931 1,882,629 James Oct. 11,1932 2,032,911 Brown Mar. 3, 1936

